Project JudyK

For this project we worked with Judy to redesign her existing website for her new cake decorating business, JudyK Cakes, as well as to develop her a strong brand which would make her stand out in a crowded market place.

Judy approached us & asked us to take a look at her current business website as she wasn’t happy with it. She wanted a website design that better reflected JudyK Cakes, that was better designed, & that was more appealing to her customers. As part of this we also developed her a new Facebook page for JudyK Cakes.

She also wanted a brand that was strong, unique & professional, and which reflected her personality. The brand needed to be appealing to her customers whilst also mixing Judy’s friendly personality with her high quality service.

Read through our approach below to see how we worked with Judy to firstly design her new branding and then how we used this to redesign, build & launch her new business website.

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Understanding Judy

Whenever we work on a project, we like to get to know the person that we are working with. We feel that is important to understand who they are, what they stand for, and what they want from the project. Especially when we are working with the owner of a small business, like Judy, we have learnt that their company tends to reflect their own personality and style, and so it is important for us to get to know them better. So, we did what we always do, we sat down with Judy over lunch to meet her, to understand who she is, to understand what JudyK Cakes is about – it’s WHY – & to learn from Judy about what she wanted from her new brand.

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Brand design

Research

To kickoff this project, we began by taking our time to look at her existing branding. We wanted to understand the existing user experience of the JudyK Cakes.

What we found was a confused, and almost non-existent brand. There was no clear message that said “we are JudyK Cakes – this is our brand”.

The consistent points that we noticed was the preference for blue font and a typeface that was friendly & informal.

We couldn’t find a logo or clear branding colour scheme.

These are examples of what we found –

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New branding

Colour scheme

The first thing that we started with was a colour scheme. This would direct the rest of the branding scheme and ‘brand voice’.

Having looked at the preference for blue that JudyK had previously used, we used that as a starting point. But we knew that for the brand to stand out in a very crowded market place, and to reflect Judy’s personality, this blue needed to be supported by a more vibrant colour.

After searching for a while, Judy sent us a picture of a dress that she really liked (see below). This dress mixed blues with a very vibrant pink – this would become the source of our colour scheme.

After working through some different options, we settled on the colour scheme below which we sent to Judy to agree –

Font scheme

Once we had a brand colour scheme, we started to consider what font scheme would suit the ‘brand voice’ that Judy wanted.

We looked at her existing font style and then looked at how we could use that inspiration to develop her something that was professional yet friendly.

After much deliberating, and much testing, we settled on the following font scheme –

Logo design

After we had received agreement from Judy on the colour scheme and the font scheme, we looked at how we could bring those together into a logo design that was strong, unique & professional, and which reflected her personality.

We come up with a number of concept ideas to give Judy some food for though –

Luckily Judy knew what she liked from our initial designs, and she sent us the designs below from a family friend who had worked up an initial idea earlier in the year –

We took this inspiration and, after input and tweaks from Judy, we came up with the final logo design –

We also created a number of secondary logo formats –

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Website design

Research

The next stage of our project was to start scoping out a new website for JudyK Cakes.

We began by taking our time to look through her existing website. We wanted to understand the existing user experience of her website with a critical eye.

One of the first things that we noticed was that it looked a little dated. It also wasn’t mobile friendly & didn’t look very professional. Additionally the branding was a little muddled, and the site didn’t clearly promote the work that Judy does or the services on offer. Whats more, it seemed to be lacking the key selling point of JudyK Cakes – the cakes.

From our user research with potential customers we also identified a key element that they would be looking for from the website – they want to be able to see what previous customers have said about Judy’s courses and to see the cakes that they have made.

So these points became our simple guidelines for the new website –

1/ The new website needs to be designed using the new branding with a clear ‘brand voice’

2/ The new website needs to clearly promote the range of services available

3/ The new website needs to promote the cakes clearly and visually

4/ The new website needs to clearly promote testimonials from previous customers including images of the cakes that they have made themselves through the courses

The new site

For the new site we came up with a simple, initial structure –

1/ about us – an explanation of Judy’s training, qualifications and membership of tradecraft (another lesson from our user research)

2/ what we do – the servicesprovided by JudyK Cakes

3/ view our work in action – a gallery of the therapy input & styles

4/ our creations – photos of some of the cakes that have been made by Judy, including a sub-menu of specific topics, such as Elf on the Shelf

5/ our sessions – details about the range of sessions and courses run by JudyK Cakes, including a sub-menu of cakes made by customers and students on the courses

6/ testimonials – written testimonials from previous customers and students

We also added the contact details and JudyK Cakes Facebook page into the footer of every page. Along with this we also included a list of Judy’s latest blog posts which promote the cakes made at courses, cakes that she as sold, and more fun topics, such as Elf on the Shelf.

We also made the site bright, vibrant, and consistent on the ‘brand voice’. It is also mobile friendly and SEO friendly.

Facebook

Another key element of this project was to support Judy to set up a presence on Facebook.

She had previously created a user account for Judy K Cake Decorating; however, as this was a user account rather than a page, customers were required to befriend her instead of ‘Liking’ a page. We know from experience that this can stop people from engaging with a Facebook profile. Additionally, we were unable to embed this Facebook profile into her website.

So we worked with her to create a new business page for JudyK Cakes which we will then helped her to promote and to also move over some of the photos from the older Facebook profile.

The new page was also developed with the same ‘brand voice’ as her website.

How does Project Judy help us live OUR WHY?

OUR WHY is to use the power of creativity to make futures better today.

Judy created JudyK Cakes to give people the confidence that they can make and decorate a cake, create sugar flowers and models and WOW their friends and family. She also supports a number of vulnerable groups of people (such as those with a disability or on a low income) with tailored courses that allow them to participate in an activity with most of society can access easily.

We helped her put her WHY into action so that she can make the futures better for her customers and those vulnerable groups.